Let us calmly consider the present situation. The mystery of the
official protection afforded to spies has been greatly increased during
the month of March, and the public confidence has been further shaken in
consequence of the statement of Mr Bonar Law in the House of Commons,
who not only declared that there were, on March 1st, 600 male alien
enemies still residing on or near the coast, but also made a most
interesting revelation. The Admiralty, he said, in order to test
whether signalling was really going on from the shore, sent a trawler to
sea with instructions to show German signal-lights. And these were
instantly answered!
What was done? Nothing! And, judging from the experience of the
public, this is hardly surprising. Perhaps a case in point may be of
interest. In the middle of February, from an officer in His Majesty's
Service, I received information that certain highly suspicious signals
were being made nightly between the Kent coast and London. Therefore I
went forth at once to investigate, in company with the officer in
question, who is a qualified signaller and wireless expert, and a
non-commissioned officer also qualified in signalling, while I myself
know something of signalling and wireless. For a fortnight we were out
nearly every night in a motor-car--sometimes watching from the tops of
hills, a cold and weary vigil from dark to dawn--until we had
established, beyond all shadow of doubt, the houses whence the
mysterious lights emanated. These houses--several of them being
residences of well-to-do people, and all in high commanding positions,
had, in each case, an alien living in them, whose name and calling I
succeeded in obtaining. Then, one night, while posted on a hill
commanding nearly the whole of Surrey, and having taken down their
code-messages on many occasions, we resolved to make a test, and with a
powerful signalling-apparatus, I suddenly replied to one of the signals,
repeated part of the code-message, and in pretence of not understanding
the remainder, asked for its repetition. At once it was flashed to me
and read by all three of us! In the message, which, later on, was
submitted to an expert in ciphers, occurred the numeral five. It was
more than a coincidence, I think, that only an hour before that message
had been flashed, five German aeroplanes had left the Belgian coast on
their way to England!
On three separate occasions, from various high positions in Kent and
Surrey, we flashed German signals, which were at once responded to.
Then, having fully established that messages were being nightly so
exchanged, to and from the metropolis, always with the same three
code-letters as prefix, and having definitely fixed those houses
harbouring the spies, I considered it my duty, as an Englishman serving
his country, to call in the assistance of the Intelligence Department of
the War Office, and to them I furnished a full report, together with the
signals sent and received.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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